Ball rolling game



Dec. 5, 1939. W|LL|AMS 2,182,418

BALL ROLLING GAME Filed Aug. 24, 1957 Patented Dec. 5, 1939 UNITEDSTATES BALL ROLLING GAME Harry E. Williams, Chicago, Ill., assignor toRaymond T. Moloney, Chicago, 111.

Application August 24, 1937, Serial No. 160,657

2 Claims.

The invention relates to a ball rolling game and particularly to novelmeans for accelerating the ball rolling action by providing improvedball propelling and rebound means, with addi-,

tional novel means to register hits of the ball with the rebound means.

The primary object of the invention is to provide an improved ballrolling game.

Another object is to provide an improved rebound means for the ball toincrease or accelerate the ball rolling action.

Still another object is to provide a ball rolling game having a ballrolling surface bounded by resilient spring elements from which a ballmay rebound in a lively manner. 7

Also it is an object to provide such ball rolling surface carrying arotary ball propeller to propel the balls to said resilient springelements for rebounding action.

Still further it is an object of the invention to provide a play surfaceof conductor material along with a ball also of conductor material, sothat when the ball hits the resilient spring bumper a circuit isestablished to energize an electromagnetic device which in turn mayoperate a score register or other desired auxiliary lmeans.

Other important objects of the invention will be apparent to thoseskilled in this art as the 30 disclosure is more fully made.

Briefly, the improved game of this invention may in one practicableform, comprise a cabinet containing a board providing a ball rollingsurface inclined slightly from the horizontal, said 35 surface being ofconductor material, such as tin foil and being delineated at itsboundary edges by resilient spring members. Substantially centrallydisposed on said surface is a rotary spinner obstacle element which ispositioned to 40 be impinged by a ball gravitating down the board andthus cause the ball which is also of conductor material, to beforcefully repropelled over the board, possibly to roll it against aboundary spring from which it rebounds. When the ball 45 hits suchspring an electric circuit through the ball rolling surface, ball, andboundary spring is established to energize, momentarily, anelectromagnetic relay device for operating a hit register or otherappropriate game auxiliary.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a general plan view of the improved a 55 The game comprisesa suitable rectangular cabinet 10, having a front wall H, rear wall [2,and opposite side walls l3. These walls carry a board or table 14,disposed at a slight inclination from the horizontal to cause a ball l5thereon to gravitate to the lower end thereof, said table or boardprovides a play surface of conductor material, such as atin foil sheetit, said surface at its lower end being delineated by a ball guideportion ii, at its upper endby an arch portion I8, at one side by a wall13, and at the opposite side by an extension [-9 forming with theadjacent wall l3, from which it is spaced, a ball projection passageway20. At the front end of the passageway is a ball projecting plunger 21carried in the usual way in the front wall H. The guide portion H isformed with a pocket 22 to trap balls gravitating to the low end of theplay surface. By means of the usual coin release slide 23 a shuffleboard not shown, is moved to drop the balls from the pocket 22 to apoint and means below the board from whence they may be raised, one at atime, in a manner common in the art, to the passageway 20, forprojection onto the upper end of the play surface for gravitationtheredown.

Positioned centrally on the play surface is a relatively large spinnerdisk 24 having a rubber or equivalent friction and yieldable bumper edge'25 carried on a vertical shaft 26 passed down through an opening 21 inthe board M and conductor covering IE, to a point below the board. Thelower end of the shaft 26 is turnable by an appropriate electric motor23 carried in a hanger bracket 29 secured to the underside of the board14. Below the motor, the shaft 26 carries and drives a fan 38 toventilate the motor. When the motor 28 operates, the shaft 26 turns thefan 30 and spinner disk 26, the latter being at a level higher than thecenter of the ball l5, which is preferably of steel. Consequently theball when it hits the spinner is propelled forcibly over the surface l6but without lifting the ball off the surface I6 and damaging the glasscover 3! which encloes the top of the cabinet in the well known manner.

The motor 28 is in a circuit 32 with a source of electrical energy, suchas the battery 33, the circuit including a switch 34 which may be closedin any desirable manner when releasing the game for play. Thus, when thegame is released for play the motor operates to turn the spinner ballpropeller 25.

When a ball is projected by the shooter 2| through passageway 20, theball emerges therefrom past a one-way gate 35 and. around the arch as iscommon in pin ball types of games.

IE to impinge and rebound from a cushion 36 The ball rebounding from thecushion 36 is now free to gravitate toward the lower endof the surfaceiii. A resilient coil spring 31 is di posed in the form of a V at thetop end of the field IE to deflect a ball to either side for emergenceat the opposite ends of the spring 31 forfurther gravitation down thesurface I6. This spring 31- is carried by conductor pins 38 above thefield l6 at aboutthe same level as the bumper edge 25 of the disk 24.The pins 38 pass downwardly through the wooden board l4 and spaced fromthe conductor l6 by a hole 39 therein, with the lower end of the pins 38in circuit by a wire 40, with relay 4|, and a battery 33. The conductorsurface I6 is in circuit with thebattery 33 by a wire 42, as shown.Thus, when the conductor ball l hits the spring 31 a circuit isestablished momentarily through'the ball to energize the electromagneticdevice 4!, which in turn can be operatively associated with any standardform of hit register or analogous auxiliary means. A

similar, resilient coil spring 43 is disposed along the one wall 13, andanother along the extension l9, said springs following the marginalcontour of the portion H but with theiradjacent inner ends gapped apartto leave an entrance to the pocket 22. Both springs maybe connected inthe circuit 4&3 for the same purpose described in connection with thespring 31.

In playing the game the motor 28 starts when the switch 34 is closed,and spins the disk 24 continuously. A ball I5 now projected by theprojector 21 rolls onto the board surface l6 and is deflected to oneside or the other by the V- spring 31, which when contacted by the ball,records a hitf through the conductor means and circuit described byenergizing the device 4|. Each engagement of the ball with the spring 37will energize the device 4|. Eventually the ball passes the ends of thespring 31 and emerges onto the field below the spring 31 whereupon theball may impinge thespinner 25 and be forcibly repropelledin anydirection to hit any of the rebound springs 31 or, 43 and thereby causeadditional energization of the device 4| in a. manner readilyunderstood. i

In practice the spring '31 can be in an electrical circuit and thesprings 43 along the side edges need not be, orvice versa.

From the description given it will be apparent that an improved gamestructure has been provided to achieve the objects of the invention.

1 It is the intention to cover herein all changes and modifications ofthe example of the invention shown and described which do not inmaterial respects constitute departures from the spirit and scope of theinvention.

What is claimed is: a

1. In a ball rolling game having a board inclined slightly from. thehorizontal, said board being of non-conductor material, a sheet ofconductor material substantially covering the board and providing asurface over which a ball of conductor material may be rolled, aconductor support pin disposed overand out of metallic connection withthe sheet, a second conductor support pincarried by the table and out ofmetala lie contact with the sheet, said two support pins being. spacedapart a substantial distance, an

elongated coil spring conductor element having its ends respectivelymetallically connected to said two conductor support pins, said springelerollingsurface in substantial parallelism thereto, and an electricalcircuit including the sheet, support pins and spring element, whichcircuit is normally open but closable when the conductor ball on thesheet contacts the spring element.

2. Ina ball rolling game having a board inclined slightly from thehorizontal, said board being of non-conductor material, a sheetof'conment being disposed above and clear of the ban ductor materialsubstantially covering the board and providing a surface over which aball of conductor material may be rolled, a pair of wide- 1y spacedconductor support pins disposed over I and out of metallic connectionwith the sheet, an intermediate conductor support pin carried by thetable between the aforesaid pins and out of metallic contact with thesheet, said support pins carrying elongated bumper spring elements inmetallic connection and arranged in V formation, said elements beingdisposed above and clear of the ball rolling surface in substantialparallelism thereto, and an electrical circuitincluding the sheet,support pins and spring elements, which circuit is normally open butclosable when the conductor ball on the sheet contacts one of the springelements.

HARRY E. WILLIAMS.

